and by that I mean very few. Seriously, Wichita is not the place for bike shopping if you don’t want a black late model Harley something or other. Since I’m still working “summer hours” I left work at noon and decided to spend the afternoon looking at and sitting on bikes at various dealerships.

First dealership I went to had by far the most metric bikes. The Kawasaki Versys that I posted last night was there. First impression: lotta dirt bikes and side-by-sides. Everything else packed in so close that you couldn’t really look at any of them, let alone sit on them. I literally walked past an MT-07 (a bike I like) 3 times before I even noticed it was there.

They had swapped to a more street friendly front tire on the Versys than was in the ad. Not a bad bike for $3500, I’m just not a huge fan of it in red.

Motorcycle dealers are bad at photos

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They also had a new 2015 Yamaha Bolt C-Spec that I kinda liked, but I wasn’t impressed enough to want it for $5600, I know a place near my parents where there’s two new FZ-07s for less.

Like this

Weirdly, no one in the place ever acknowledged that I was there, so I left.

Next stop was an Indian/Used dealership who I’d heard had a lot of used bikes. Weirdly fancy showroom with wood floors and tables, and about 12 new bikes total, so plenty of room to walk around (thank you baby jesus). They had 3 new Indian Scouts including a red Scout Sixty that I liked quite a bit.

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A much more striking bike in person than in photos, but out of my budget at $10k.

Asked them if they had any used inventory, and they pointed me towards a pair of double doors...

...behind which was a unfinished warehouse stuffed full of a ton of anonymous Harley junk I couldn’t care less about, so I left.

Next stop, the Triumph/Polaris/Victoy/Enfield dealer. Walked in and was immediately enamored with a couple of Triumph Bonneville Bobbers and a Speedmaster. I figured all of which were probably out of my budget, but nevertheless turned over the price tag to see the price...

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It’s so pretty, but wow are Triumph proud of this thing

...and said “fuck you, and your $13k bike” and left.

Next was a very long drive (45 minutes) out to a place that sponsors the MSF course and was highly recommended by the coaches as being a friendly place. That was very true, however, their claim to be “the largest used metric bike dealer in Kansas” was hilariously false.

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So

Many

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Shitty

Late

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Model

Harleys

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I will give them credit, they were extremely friendly without being pushy or annoying. Also, they take fantastic photos for their websites, showing every single blemish/dent/ding in an individual close up picture. 100% seem like the kinda place I’d want to do business with if only they actually had anything I was remotely interested in.

Thus ended my afternoon of looking at motorcycles, without actually sitting on a single bike.